Chapter Fifty-Six: The Real World and the False Lies

The three stood in the plaza of the earth building, their bodies covered with wounds that seemed to cut to the bone. Their faces were pale, and though they had only rested for a brief moment, they were already at each other’s throats again. Another bout of fighting left fresh injuries on all three and added two more to the number of the fallen.

The young woman panted for breath, half her body already transformed into sheets of paper. She was weak, her steps leaving uneven prints on the ground. She walked toward the shrine, extracted the spout from her chest, and placed a small, cubic piece of metal onto the altar. Clutching the railings on either side of the shrine, she muttered under her breath, “I offer the taboos of this world as sacrifice. I forge this lantern with life and hope. I pray to the nameless god—grant me passage to this treasure realm, let me glimpse the greatest riches and secrets.”

As she whispered, the document she had kept in her pocket began to glow. She retrieved it and found two new lines written in fresh ink:

“All things related to me will revert to their original state.”
“The doors of the earth building will stand open.”

She was puzzled. She had assumed the secret of the realm would be a path inside the earth building, connected to the hidden passage behind it. But it seemed that strange path had not come into play at all.

Perplexed, she nonetheless made her way outside. No investigator would hesitate at the brink of death, for those who hesitated always died because of it.

She pushed open the door and was greeted by a world brimming with life, birds singing, flowers blooming. Grass had grown up to the very threshold. For a moment she stared in disbelief as several children burst out laughing behind her. Startled, she turned to look back. The earth building behind her had become a hall of happiness, filled with laughing children sitting on the ground. All the sand and blood had vanished without a trace.

“What’s going on... what are the rules of this place?” she wondered aloud.

She had suspected, “Could it be... both clues were wrong? Impossible! One said the record was false, the other said to record fear. Didn’t that mean to find the unreasonable disasters?”

She was lost in thought when, suddenly, the power of her relics began to plummet, their abilities falling off at a geometric rate. As the artifacts weakened, the price they demanded from their wielder dropped as well.

Within just a dozen seconds, her mind and reasoning returned to their usual sharpness.

“No... Impossible... The power of the relics has diminished, but my wish hasn’t exacted any extra cost. That means the two instructions must point to the same rule...”

She fell silent. In the stream before her, fry leapt from the water, and beside the brook, four people sat with fishing rods in hand. They paid no attention to the girl murmuring behind them, their world occupied only by the river fish before them. Their eyes were fixed on the riverbed, and their rods inched closer to the fish at a slow, steady pace.

She observed these four at ease, curiosity rising within her. As she approached, she saw that two of them wore modern clothes, while the other two were dressed in styles from long ago. When she was about ten meters away, she pressed the spout of the teapot hard against her chest again, gripping the silvery block from her pocket. But before she could activate the artifact, a dark gun barrel was already trained on her.

She froze. By the river, a figure slowly stood, handing her fishing rod to a man beside her. The man sighed, then nodded reluctantly.

The figure turned around, revealing the face of Jiang Wan, who held her gun ready, signaling for the girl to set down her relics. “I suggest you don’t try anything. No matter how fast you are, you can’t activate your relics before I pull the trigger from ten meters away.” Jiang Wan smiled, flashing her credentials. “Give it up. You’re wanted for murder and endangering public safety; I’m authorized to execute you on the spot.”

The girl hesitated until Jiang Wan asked, “Your name?”

“Zhu Xiaoyu.”

Jiang Wan’s expression changed, surprise flickering across her face. “It’s you? You look so young!” she exclaimed. At that moment, Chen Qing stood up, still holding his fishing rod, facing the river with his back to Jiang Wan. “You’ve heard her name?”

“Fourteen years ago, she robbed the city museum and flashed a peace sign at the security camera. How could I not?” Jiang Wan’s look was a mix of curiosity and wariness as she studied the young woman before her. Chen Qing spoke up, “Then you’re in charge of taking her in. Make sure you strip her of all relics.”

“That can be arranged...” Jiang Wan was silent for a moment, then pointed her gun again at the girl’s hands. “Put them down.”

Chen Qing added, “She’ll have a teapot in her arms, too. That thing is dangerous.”

Zhu Xiaoyu paled. Seeing the official pistol in the other’s hand and sensing the weakness of her relics, she was unwilling to gamble. If she’d been uninjured, with two C-class relics at her disposal, she would have feared neither of them. But now...

She turned ashen, lifted the edge of her sleeve, and pulled the teapot spout from her chest. Hands raised, she placed both relics on the ground and stepped back.

Jiang Wan advanced, and Zhu Xiaoyu retreated, only stopping once Jiang Wan had both artifacts in hand.

“Where do I detain her? I can’t just leave now.” Jiang Wan, pressing the young—no, the woman—under her control, called toward the riverbank.

“Cuff her to this old gentleman, he won’t mind.”

“Huh?”

She hesitated, but in the end trusted Jiang Wan’s method. When she was finally cuffed beside the old man, a faint smile crept onto her face. “Go on, then... You’ll have to enter the earth building three more times. I’ll be waiting for you to come get me out.”

She had never met this man, which meant he’d need to enter the back rooms at least once more. He might perish inside, and so might she. But whatever happened, by the time they emerged, they would no longer have the power to threaten her as they did now. That’s what she thought.

But Zhu Xiaoyu gave a soft laugh, and the youth before her simply shook his head. “Who told you I’d need to go back in?”

Zhu Xiaoyu frowned, unable to match the unfamiliar face before her to any memory. Who was he? Had he already cleared the back rooms before her? Impossible!

The youth gave her a strange smile. “How do you know... that I wasn’t there among you when you fought?”

She was bewildered, never imagining a dead body could be standing before her. No matter her confusion, she would never link the person in front of her to a corpse.

Yes, he was Chen Qing—the investigator who had died under her teapot artifact, and the only one to survive witnessing the battle of the three major organizations’ cadre.

He smiled faintly, the skin mask on his face already loosening. Pinching his chin, he shook his head, took the two relics from Jiang Wan, and walked deeper in without looking back.

Ahead of them was a clearing beyond the earth building, but as they walked, their figures gradually faded from the back rooms.

Watching Chen Qing’s disappearing silhouette, Zhu Xiaoyu’s eyes widened, disbelief written across her pale, delicate face. She stared after them, no longer thinking of escape.

She was curious... No investigator was immune to curiosity about the unknown.

And I believe most humans are like that, forever drawn toward unsolved mysteries.

Everything must begin again from the moment Chen Qing entered the back rooms a second time, after stepping into the earth building.